Ancient Aliens, Yes or No?

[Nowhere Man]

The theory that Aliens are a part of our distant past and the possible reason we exist. There is a show on the History Channel of the same name. Each week they provide "evidence" of thier theories. I'm not asking what you think of the show as much as the theory it's self. I supose you can't talk about the theory without discussing the show, but lets try.

My thought is that I definately believe other inteligent life forms exist out there and I believe it's possible they have tech, that would allow them to travel long distances within short time periods. I also belive it is possible they could have visited the Earth at any point in time. I don't buy the train of thought they they would land on the White House lawn or whatever. We can't assume thier motivations.I tend to lean towards the thought that they have been here in modern times. I definately believe that the government has not told the truth about Roswell.

All of that bieng said, i'm on the fence with the Ancient Aliens. The Mulder in me wants to believe, the Skully in me says, "yeah right." If they have been here, why? Where are they from? When are they planning on revealing themselves?

 

[T'Girl]

Possible. But the information is murky.

 

[ancientone51]

Considering some of the Ancient Wonders still seen or well documented, would not surprise me.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Possible. But the information is murky.

Agreed.

 

[Thestral]

Good for fantastical stories. No for IRL.

 

[Niorah]

More than merely "possible", in my opinion. The evidence is amassing more and more each day.

 

[Jadzia]

It's possible that aliens exist and played a causal role in our existence or visited us in our past, but relatively meaningless to quantify the probability.

I've often thought that the best way that life can expand beyond it's solar system, is to seed the galaxy with microorganisms, perhaps using comets as delivery vehicles. As a comet approaches a star, it's surface evaporates and the material is spread out for collection by that star's planets.

It's possible that the Earth was itself seeded with microorganisms this way, rather than developing life on it's own.

Large mammals are not necessarily best kind of life to attempt to transplant on other worlds. Everything evolves. Trust natural selection to evolve microorganisms.

 

[Jenee]

I want to believe, but ... the engineer in me always comes up with a different explaination.

 

[ThankQ]

Possible. But the information is murky.

Agreed.

Murky? The evidence that we're going to get 3 inches of snow on Sunday is murky.

Maybe a hair of a sliver of a thread of scant--that's the evidence for ancient aliens.

 

[Santaman]

First see, then believe, does other live exist? probably, will it ever get here? forget it, people seem to have a bloody bad understanding of how large the universe actually is.

 

[Deckerd]

I want to believe, but ... the engineer in me always comes up with a different explaination.

I think you've summed it up well Jenee. Everyone wants to believe but most people let their pesky life experience get in the way.

 

[Deks]

Why 'believe' in the first place?
Why not simply place a theory as a possible explanation and keeping in mind the prospect it could be mistaken?
Fairly simple... and doesn't require 'faith' or theological perception of any kind.

I think people get wrapped up too much in the aspect of 'belief' for their own good because they were droned into thinking that 'belief' is an integral part of Human experience... and I can assure you, that it's not the case (at least for a lot of individuals).

 

[Franklin]

Can't say, "no," wouldn't say, "yes." I really got into the ancient astronaut stuff in junior high. As I got older and looked at things more deeply, I was embarrassed by how much of the "evidence" I had swallowed whole. I look at it all with a jaundiced eye, now. Of course, if they find Data's head in San Francisco, all bets are off.

 

[Jadzia]

Why 'believe' in the first place?
Why not simply place a theory as a possible explanation and keeping in mind the prospect it could be mistaken?

I think some people can't abide shades of gray, and prefer to interpret a thing as being either black or white.

Sitting on the fence is bad... must choose a side.

 

[Franklin]

Why 'believe' in the first place?
Why not simply place a theory as a possible explanation and keeping in mind the prospect it could be mistaken?

I think some people can't abide shades of gray, and prefer to interpret a thing as being either black or white.

Sitting on the fence is bad... must choose a side.

It's not that sitting on the fence is bad. The scientific method would require someone to assume, "no" until proven otherwise.
That's the frustrating thing about believing whether or not life exists on other worlds. Probabilistically, the answer seems, "yes." It seems impossible that we are alone or all that ever was or will be, especially in the face of all that's been discovered lately. But the null hypothesis is still, "no" until we actually have evidence of a beastie from another world.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Possible but unnecessary and unlikely, in general (we're in a bit of a galactic backwater, yout see).

As for the show specifically - it's fucking awful. I can only take so much stupidity in one sitting, and less before breakfast.

The usual 2+2 = eleventy billion sort of stuff.

"Legends speak of men coming and going in dragons - spaceships?" Or, you know, ordinary ships with dragon-like figureheads or sail artwork like so many cultures have used.

"Beings with boots and helmets - astronauts!" Or soldiers. Doesn't this say "military" rather than "aliens"?

A picture of an ancient artwork showing what looks like a man with his head inside a teddy bear's head - a man in a space helmet! Or, a man in.... a bear mask? Actually, to be fair, this one was a bit creepy because it was such a *modern* looking teddy bear - just like the bears in, say, Naughty Bear.

I mean, I love the ancient astronaut theory as a fun SF diversion and I love Stargate, but come on... Even I, who think the whole thing's a total fantasy, can think of more convincing "examples of evidence" than they actually included...

 

[Electric Coleslaw]

I think the biggest problem is that some people vastly underestimate just how capable ancient civilizations were at building monuments and cities. We struggle with explaining how the pyramids were built because it is hard to comprehend doing the work without the technology we have today. But when a few scientists actually try to build something out of wood and ropes, they find that they can in fact move those large stones around with relative ease.

I was also watching a show about the Nazca lines in Peru and they showed that you could go up on one of the ridges and see the drawings from there so there was no need for a spaceship. Which is good because I'd hate to think that aliens who could travel across interstellar space would need a big monkey drawing in the sand to help them land.

 

[Jenee]

Why 'believe' in the first place?
Why not simply place a theory as a possible explanation and keeping in mind the prospect it could be mistaken?

I think some people can't abide shades of gray, and prefer to interpret a thing as being either black or white.

Sitting on the fence is bad... must choose a side.

First, not all "beliefs" are theologically related, I believe the theory of evolution - see? Not God related at all.

It is possible that beings from other worlds landed on this planet eons ago, and lots of the "evidence" seems to be convincing. But, just looking at the "evidence", I can come up with at least 10 other explainations without resorting to ancient astronauts.

I'm not choosing a side - in fact, I think most of the posts so far say that it is possible - just not likely. At least, not likely with the evidence and facts and 'what we know' at this point in our evolution.

[...]Which is good because I'd hate to think that aliens who could travel across interstellar space would need a big monkey drawing in the sand to help them land.

 

[Deckerd]

I was being facetious before but seriously, there isn't any evidence so far. "Aliens" is just the modern word for gods, therefore: "My imagination can't stretch to how people did this so it must have been gods who did it."

 

[Jenee]

I was being facetious before but seriously, there isn't any evidence so far. "Aliens" is just the modern word for gods, therefore: "My imagination can't stretch to how people did this so it must have been gods who did it."

That, and the fact that they can make money by being contortionists to connect the dots.